Introduction:
Researches indicate that play is an increasingly more varied and complex activity than what it was thought to be and has a significant influence on the physical, cognitive and social development of children along with academic activities.
Despite of their varying orientations, many famous child development theorists, agree that play benefits children in many different ways and that it occupies a central role in childhood development.
• Briefly explain the difference between the two major categories of play, structured and Unstructured - e.g. Children try to achieve pre-existing objectives set usually by an adult in structured play while they establish their own objectives in free/unstructured play.
• Introduce the link between
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• Discuss how the four skills (Body awareness, spatial awareness, directional awareness, temporal awareness) in perceptual-motor development are enhanced through play- e.g: Body awareness or an understanding about the different parts of the body and their movement and abilities is developed in activities such as walking, skipping and hanging,
Play and Cognitive Development:
• Discuss with evidence the link between play and brain development: e.g. An experiment conducted with rats showed that rats raised in enriched environments with peers developed thicker cortices in brain than those in isolated environments which indicate enhanced activity of the specific function assigned to the cortex such as recognition.
Child development theorists supporting the idea of play and cognitive development:
• Jean Piaget: He believed that play contributes to the expansion of cognitive abilities in children including language development, creativity and development of imagination, intelligence, and critical
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• Discuss with examples what social skills are developed through group play- e.g.: being able to handle stress, exclusion and dominance, face conflicts and challenges and learn self-control.
• Discuss development of autonomy and independence through play and its importance for children in their socialisation.
Child development theorists supporting the idea of play and cognitive development:
• Lev Vygotsky: He suggests that learning to follow rules in order to continue the play will aid children in learning to take feelings and ideas of others into consideration.
• Jean Piaget: He believed that the empathy that children show one another by taking turns, cooperating and sharing through play, signals of their awareness of others.
However free play time for children is declining due to busy lifestyle of parents and many parents believing free play to be an unproductive or waste of time compared to structured play such as organized sports which are professionally taught.
Many theorists have tried to define play as a concept, however, no two agree on a set definition. Their backgrounds and induvial lifestyles influence the way they see the importance of play. Reed and Brown also believe that there isn’t an agreed definition of play because is something that is felt rather than done (Reed & Brown, 2000 cited in Brock, Dodd’s, Jarvis & Olusoga, 2009). In spite of this, it is clear that most theorists uphold the ethos that play is imperative to a child’s learning and development. There is a wide range of different studies and theories which helps us develop our own perception of what play is. In my personal experience I have found play to be a way of expressive our emotions, exploring and learning new things, thus
The second section will evaluate the importance of play on different aspects of social development and in various stages of an individual. The third section will analyze how viewpoints on function of play on development are shaped by historical and contextual factors such as culture and economy. Developmental psychologists use various research methods such as naturalistic observations, interviews, experimental research and examining the natural context of children’s everyday interaction within the family to study the role of play in children’s development. They apply different approaches to study different types of play. Play by nature, creates a natural learning environment for the child.
For example, play such as climbing, skipping, running, and hopping assist in the development of the child’s gross motor skills. Similarly, cutting with scissors, and drawing assist in the further development of the child’s fine motor skills (Davies, 2011). In addition, play is instrumental in social development. Preschool children learn values of prosocial behavior such as comforting, helping, controlling aggression, and sharing via cooperative play. For example, turn taking is an important aspect of play that fosters sharing, moral reasoning, control of aggression, and conflict resolution because it is an essential aspect to the child’s establishment friendships and maintenance of relationships (Davies, 2011). Consequently, because friends spend more time playing together, they have more conflicts but are more likely to negotiate a solution. Ultimately, because of the child’s desire to be accepted and valued by peers, conflicts become opportunities for the child to learn how to, control aggression, share, and resolve
Many theories have illustrated the role of play in children for their development. According to Jean Piaget children are actively involved in their environment. The child initiates an activity and assembles the necessary information through exploration of his environment. This is where Piaget’s introduced schema. Schema is basically how knowledge is structured or categorized in a child’s mind. According to Piaget (2006), schema is formed through the process of assimilation (child views the environment according to his way) and accommodation (enhancing on the knowledge the child already knows). Piaget suggested that children developed through 3 stages: mastery stage/ practice play, play stage/symbolic play and game stage/ games with rules (MCI, Child development module, chapter IV, 2013).
The recess project has become a well renowned program. The recess project's goal is to advocate structured play among today’s children. “Recess leaders help the older children on the playground become leaders themselves, guiding younger children as they learn how to juggle or make crafts or do Zumba, the dance like exercise regimen set to fast-paced music”(Paul Par 5) . This is important because recess leaders from the recess project felt the need to help the older children on the playground. Recess leaders proved that with guidance and structure the older children gain the responsibility to guide the younger children in complex activities. Structured play drives strategy and following directions because with structured play children are given a specific set of guidelines and rules. After receiving rules and guidelines it is then up to the child to go from there and play(Nelson Par 1). There are numerous activities involved with structured play. The varying activities teach children how to follow and understand directions. This also helps children complete tasks. Various structured activities include board games, puzzles, and arts and crafts(Nelson Par 3). Anyone who has ever dealt with a child or children know things may become very messy, what if there was a way children can be taught life skills such as cleaning? In fact that is what structured play can do. As children are
Piaget also commented that about ages four to seven, game playing is egocentric; there is neither a strong sense of cooperation nor of competition. Children do not understand rules very well or they make them up as they go along. However, there are other theorists who have held diverging views. Vygotsky (1978), for instance, e...
... play has a strong impact on a child’s emotional development as well (Hjelmstedt & Collins, 2008).
Like the latter, an essay by Gray, P. (2016) also showed researches on play deficit. He found out that most professionals who succeeded and happy are those who were not deprived in playing. He then concluded that, play deprivation is not good for children and other things. It promotes anxiety, depression, narcissism, loss of creativity and
When children play, is a way for them to develop and learn new skills. The children that play have a positive future comparing to those that don’t play at all. For example, I was a reading an article regarding the generation from today. There was a study conducted with two groups of children. One group had no technology and was in nature camping. The other group wasn’t in the nature camp. The children that had no technology were able to recognize the emotions from the picture. Playing helps the children to interact and assimilate the roles to the real life world. According to the text, we learn best when we are having fun (p. 287). The reason is that the children are having first-hand experience and impact events are easily to recognize. When we play, we start to develop his concepts: imaginary friend, cognitive, language, feelings, empathy, empathy, and many more. It seems that as young children play, they learn many cognitive and social skills that result in social competence later in their childhood (p. 287). Also, as
All children play and it is something that most children do because they are having fun, but without realising children are developing and learning skills when they are engaged in play. Play helps stimulate the mind as it is practical and gives children the chance to explore and experience new situations. It can also ensure that children get to think by themselves and be spontaneous as they control their own play. Children get the chance to be creative and imaginative which develops independence for children. Play is vital for child development and helps children develop five main areas of development:
Children have a natural inclination to play, alongside a natural instinct to learn and to be curious and inventive, which are characteristics of the human race in general. This quote taken from Janet Moyles is a good starting point for this essay. It is well known that children love to play. If a child were to be left to his/her own devices they would happily play and create new worlds anywhere they were left. It has been well documented and researched that children learn excellently through play. However they are not always given the opportunity to do so, instead being told to, ‘finish your work and then you can go play’. Obviously this is not always the case, but the fact that it is a common practice shows that we do not all fully appreciate the importance of play to children’s learning. This essay will attempt to show how children learn through play, making reference to current theory and practice. I will also give examples from my own first-hand experience of how children learn and develop as people through play.
Children develop normally when they are exposed to different types of play that allow them to express themselves while using their imaginations and being physically active. According to the Center for Health Education, Training and Nutrition Awareness, “Play is child’s work”; this is true because it is a child’s job to learn and develop in their first few years of life, in order for them to do this, they play. Not only is playing a child’s full time job, the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights listed play as a right of every child. Through their full time job of play, the children develop emotionally, socially, physically, and creatively. Children need to participate in child-led play in order to facilitate healthy development of their minds, body, and creativity.
Before diving into my research, I reflected on the knowledge I already knew regarding play and play based learning. From experience, I know that play is an enjoyable activity for children, and even some adults. I know that there are different ways one can play. For example, playing with others is known as cooperative play and playing alone is considered solitary play. There are different types of play. For example, there is dress up or pretend games, which is considered dramatic, play and there is playing with building blocks which is constructive play. After my reflection I realized that I was more knowledgeable on the action of playing rather then the benefits of it.
In Kindergarten school, some parent believes play is the best way for young children to learn the conceptions, skills, and set a solid foundation for later school and life success. In the other hand, many parents disagree and believe play is a waste of time, messy, noisy, and uneducationall. I believe play is not waste of time, but it something worth to fight for, in this presentation I would show parent the main importance of some of the numerous kinds of play, and why play is a fundamental basis for improving children’s ability to succeed in school and life.
A very wise man; Charles Schaefer, once said “We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves, or more deeply engrossed in anything than when we are playing.” To begin with, there is no one explanation about what play really is, other than the fact that it holds infinite numbers of definitions according to every single individual. Play is just not a physical body movement involved in an activity, but more than that if you look outside of the box. For centuries, play has been practiced in its own unique way with not only children, but adults as well.